Abstract

Neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay is a hypothesized process where in some even-even nuclei it might be possible for two neutrons to simultaneously decay into two protons and two electrons without emitting neutrinos. This is possible only if neutrinos are Majorana particles, i.e. fermions that are their own antiparticles. Neutrinos being Majorana particles would explicitly violate lepton number conservation, and might play a role in the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would also provide complementary information related to neutrino masses. The Majorana Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, with a total of 40-kg Germanium detectors, to search for the 0νββ decay of 76Ge and to demonstrate a background rate at or below 3 counts/(ROI·t·y) in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the 2039 keV Q-value for 76Ge 0νββ decay. In this paper, we discuss the physics of neutrinoless double beta decay and then focus on the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, including its design and approach to achieve ultra-low backgrounds and the status of the experiment.

Details

Title
The Majorana Demonstrator: A Search for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay of 76Ge
Author
W Xu 1 ; Abgrall, N 2 ; Avignone, F T, III 3 ; Barabash, A S 4 ; Bertrand, F E 5 ; Brudanin, V 6 ; Busch, M 7 ; Buuck, M 8 ; Byram, D 9 ; Caldwell, A S 10 ; Y-D, Chan 2 ; Christofferson, C D 10 ; Cuesta, C 8 ; Detwiler, J A 8 ; Efremenko, Yu 11 ; Ejiri, H 12 ; Elliott, S R 1 ; Galindo-Uribarri, A 5 ; Giovanetti, G K 13 ; Goett, J 1 ; Green, M P 5 ; Gruszko, J 8 ; Guinn, I 8 ; Guiseppe, V E 14 ; Henning, R 13 ; Hoppe, E W 15 ; Howard, S 10 ; Howe, M A 13 ; Jasinski, B R 9 ; Keeter, K J 16 ; Kidd, M F 17 ; Konovalov, S I 4 ; Kouzes, R T 15 ; LaFerriere, B D 15 ; Leon, J 8 ; MacMullin, J 13 ; Martin, R D 9 ; Meijer, S J 13 ; Mertens, S 2 ; Orrell, J L 15 ; O'Shaughnessy, C 13 ; Overman, N R 15 ; Poon, A W P 2 ; Radford, D C 5 ; Rager, J 13 ; Rielage, K 1 ; Robertson, R G H 8 ; Romero-Romero, E 18 ; Ronquest, M C 1 ; Shanks, B 13 ; Shirchenko, M 6 ; Snyder, N 9 ; Suriano, A M 10 ; Tedeschi, D 14 ; Trimble, J E 13 ; Varner, R L 5 ; Vasilyev, S 6 ; Vetter, K 19 ; Vorren, K 13 ; White, B R 5 ; Wilkerson, J F 20 ; Wiseman, C 14 ; Yakushev, E 6 ; C-H, Yu 5 ; Yumatov, V 4 

 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA 
 Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA 
 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA 
 Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Russia 
 Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA 
 Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia 
 Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, NC, USA 
 Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 
 Department of Physics, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA 
10  South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD, USA 
11  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA 
12  Research Center for Nuclear Physics and Department of Physics, Osaka University, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan 
13  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, NC, USA 
14  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA 
15  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA 
16  Department of Physics, Black Hills State University, Spearfish, SD, USA 
17  Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN, USA 
18  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA 
19  Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA; Alternate Address: Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA 
20  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, NC, USA; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA 
Publication year
2015
Publication date
May 2015
Publisher
IOP Publishing
ISSN
17426588
e-ISSN
17426596
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2576340359
Copyright
© 2015. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.